Related product system and method

ABSTRACT

Computer-implemented systems and methods for automatically creating a second customized product design incorporating information from a first customized product design. Information from a first custom product design is automatically combined with additional automatically selected content to create a new custom product to be promoted to the customer. When possible, information known about the customer, such as the customer&#39;s geographic location or business interests, is used to select the additional content for incorporation into the design.

REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of prior application Ser. No.11/056,305, filed on Feb. 11, 2005, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to electronic custom product design andmore particularly to automatically created custom products.

BACKGROUND

Business cards are widely used promotion and marketing tools. Whilebusiness cards are quite useful, the recipient of the card oftenquickly, and sometimes haphazardly, places the card in a wallet, purse,briefcase, desk drawer, file folder, or other location where the cardmay be difficult to locate in the future and rarely or never seen. Manycards are simply lost, forgotten, or discarded.

Some business people, professionals, and others who desire to keep theirname and contact information in front of their clients and prospectiveclients find it productive to combine their contact and marketinginformation with additional material that the recipient may want torefer to on an ongoing basis and, therefore, will keep close at hand forfrequenting viewing. Two of the most common examples of additionalmaterial often seen combined with promotional information about abusiness are calendars and season schedules for local sports teams. Manybusinesses may not use these types of materials because they are toobusy or distracted to engage in the traditional design and orderingprocess or they simply forget to order the materials on a timely basis.

There is, therefore, a need for a novel system and method forautomatically creating and presenting a supplemental product design thatincorporates the business card design or other relevant information ofthe customer into the design of another product together with additionalproduct content automatically selected based on information associatedwith that customer.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed at satisfying the need for systems andmethods that automatically create the design for a supplement productbased on an existing customized product and including additionalautomatically selected content.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the design of a secondcustom product is automatically created by combining the designinformation of a first custom product with informational contentautomatically selected from a plurality of available informationalcontents. If possible, the information content incorporated into thedesign of the second product is selected based on geographical,occupational, or other factor as determined from the design and contentof the first product.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system with which theinvention can be employed.

FIG. 2 is a simplified depiction of an embodiment of a related product.

FIG. 3 is a simplified representation of a promotional presentation ofthe related product.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a representative method for creating anew product that is related to a previously designed product.

DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, client 110 is a typically equipped personalcomputer, portable computer, or other system capable of communicatingvia network 120, such as the Web, with remote server systems, such asserver 130, and capable of executing a web browser program 112 and anemail program 114. The client 110 system also includes a user display116 capable of displaying text, images, and graphics to a user of thesystem and one or more user data input devices 118, such as a keyboardand a mouse.

Server 130 is the web site computing and support system of a vendor ofcustomized products. In the following discussion, a vendor site thatallows users of the site to design and purchase personalized printedproducts using online software tools available at the site, such asVistaPrint.com operated by VistaPrint Limited, will be discussed, but itwill be understood that the invention is not so limited. While server130 is depicted in FIG. 1 as a single block, it will be understood thatserver 130 will typically be comprised of multiple servers, data storagesystems, and other equipment and devices configured to communicate andoperate cooperatively to support the operations of the site.

Server 130 provides the user of client 110 with the ability to accessthe product provider's site, view product templates, and use softwareproduct design tools 136 provided by the site to select a template, addimages, text, or other content, and perform various modifications tocreate a customized product design. After a product has been designed bythe user, the user can place an order for the production and delivery tothe user's home or business of quantities of high quality, printedproducts of the type that the user is not capable of producing with theprinter systems typically connected to most personal computer systems.

Server 130 retains customer information 132 and product designs 134. Itwill be understood that these are conceptual representatives of onepossible system embodiment and the contents of customer information 132and product designs 134 could be stored in various locations on multiplestorage systems.

In the disclosed exemplary embodiment, product designs 134 contains thevarious pre-designed images, layouts, graphics, color schemes, and othercontent and materials provided for use by site users in preparing customproducts. These various elements are retained such that they can beindividually selected and combined with the text or other contentprovided by the user to create a personalized electronic product design.As will be discussed in more detail below, among the pre-designedcontent elements prepared by the vendor and stored in product designs134 are a number of content images that are associated by the productvendor with one or more search criteria.

Product designs 134 also retains the custom product designs created bycustomers. The customer designs are retained as separately storedcomponent elements, such as text, layouts, images, graphics, fonts, andorganizational and relational information that collectively comprise theproduct description necessary to allow product components in productdesign information 134 to be identified, retrieved, and assembled tocreate a customer's personalized product. Electronic product designsystems allowing a user to create a personalized electronic productdesign using separately stored layouts, images, and other componentelements are described in co-owned and co-pending application Ser. Nos.10/449,836, entitled Electronic Document Modification, and 10/646,554,entitled Automated Image Resizing and Cropping, which are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

Customer information 132 contains the data stored by the vendor inconnection with each customer design retained in product designs 134.Each custom product design is associated with a unique product designidentifier as well as other related information, such as the producttype, quantity ordered, date shipped, shipping address, billing address,the customer's account identifier, and so forth.

Referring to FIG. 2, a simplified depiction of an automatically preparedcustom related product design 200 will be discussed. In the simple formshown, related product 200 can be considered to have two content areas,first product design information area 202 and targeted content area 204.The relative size and position of areas 202 and 204 within productdesign 200 can be established by the product vendor as desired foraesthetic or practical reasons. While areas 202 and 204 are shown inFIG. 2 as two separate and non-overlapping areas, it will be understoodthat the two areas could abut each other, or one area could overlap oroverlay the other. For example, area 204 could be designed as abackground image covering the entire design 200 with the first productdesign information area 202 being positioned on top of area 204.

First product area 202 contains information previously designed orprovided by the customer. For example, area 202 could be an image of thecustomer's previously designed business card or other previouslydesigned product. As an alternative embodiment, instead of incorporatinga faithful depiction of the business card design in related product 200,the product vendor could use the name, address, telephone number, andother contact information retained in product design 134 and associatedwith the customer's business card or other design and incorporate thecustomer information into related product design 200 in a differentsize, arrangement, font, color, background, or with other modificationsthat the vendor believes would be aesthetically pleasing in the overallrelated product design 200.

Targeted content 204 is selected automatically from a plurality ofavailable content images based on available information about thecustomer's occupation, geographical location, or other identifiablecustomer preference and, where appropriate, also based on the time ofyear when the customized related product design is being offered to thecustomer. By way of illustration of one embodiment, the vendor hasprepared and stored in product designs 134 the season schedules forvarious professional sports, such as professional baseball, football,basketball, soccer, hockey, auto racing, and so forth. Each schedule isassociated in product designs 134 with one or more geographicalidentifiers, such as zip or postal codes, related to the geographicalregion where fans of that team are most likely to be located.

The process for placing an order for the first product requires thecustomer to specify certain geographical information, such as a shippingaddress to which the printed products are to be shipped. In addition, abusiness card design itself typically contains address information.Therefore, it is very likely that information is available in customerinformation 132 from which postal code information about the customercan be obtained.

In addition to the physical location of the customer, the time of yearis also considered in selecting the targeted content most likely to bedesirable to the customer. While a season schedule for the localbaseball team might be an attractive content item if the related productis being offered to the customer in the early spring, the schedule forthe local football team would be a better choice for incorporation intothe product design as targeted content 204 if the product is beingpromoted in the early autumn.

As another example of providing content that is of ongoing value to theclients of the customer, the image to be incorporated into the relatedproduct as targeted content 204 could be based on available occupationalinformation about the customer. To assist customers to quickly locate anattractive and relevant design for a business card or other product, theproduct vendor provides optional means, such as a drop down menu or alist of individual buttons, that allows the customer to request that thecustomer be presented with candidate product templates relevant to thecustomer's particular type of business, such as construction, legal,medical, real estate, and so forth. Server 130 can retain in customerinformation 132 an indication of the type of business search that wasused and can use that indication to select a candidate content image fortargeted content 204. For example, if the customer searched in thecategory of health and fitness, an image with tips on exercise and dietcould be selected for use as content image 204. If the selected categorywas real estate, an image containing advice on buying or selling a homecould be chosen as image 204.

Some customers may have designed one or more additional customizedproducts that are retained at server 130 and are associated with thatcustomer's account identifier. As another means of selecting content ofinterest to the customer for use in targeted content area 204, thevendor could search all other customized product designs associated withthat customer's account to identify any products previously designed bythat customer that contain targeted content. If earlier used targetedcontent is identified, indicating that the customer was interested inthat type of content in the past, an image of similar or correspondingtargeted content suitable for use in related product design 200 can beincorporated into design 200.

Related product 200 may be presented and promoted to a customer invarious ways, FIG. 3 will now be discussed in various contexts toillustrate representative ways of presenting and marketing relatedproduct 200 to a customer.

In the context of an email marketing campaign, FIG. 3 can be discussedas representing a promotional email message prepared by the productvendor. The product vendor could search product designs 134 to identifya previously stored business card design, combine the business cardimage with a selected targeted content image 204 to create an image ofrelated product 200, and send email 300 containing the relatedcustomized product image 200 to the customer using the email addressassociated with that customer in customer information 132. Email 300would typically include one or more areas of text and graphics,represented collectively as message content area 302. Email 300 alsoincludes active link 304 allowing allow the customer to initiate thepurchase process for the promoted product and active link 306 allowingthe customer to initiate a product edit process to select a new contentimage 204 make other desired changes prior to ordering the product.

In the context of a post-sell offer on the Web site, FIG. 3 can bediscussed as representing a post-sell Web page displayed during thecustomer check-out process to a customer who accessed server 130,designed a personalized business card or other product, and is in theprocess of completing the usual purchase process by specifying method ofpayment, shipping address and so forth. Just prior to final execution ofthe order, the vendor displays post-sell page 300 to the user. As in theabove-described email promotion situation, the page displays theautomatically generated design 200 along with additional text andgraphics 302 relative to the offer. To facilitate and streamline theordering process, post-sell page 300 presents link 304 allowing thecustomer to add the related product to the customer's order, link 306allowing the customer to proceed with the original order withoutpurchasing the related product, and link 308, allowing the customer toinitiate an edit session for the related product to select a differentcontent image 204 or perform other desired actions. If the customer isin the process of purchasing a business card, the image of the businesscard being purchased in used in related product image 200 as image 202.If the product being currently being purchased is not a business card,but an earlier created business card design is associated with thecustomer in product designs 132, the associated business card design isretrieved and used as image 202. If the customer has more than onebusiness card design stored in product designs 132,

In the context of a specific customer request, FIG. 3 can be discussedas representing a related product Web page requested by the customer.While the customer is in the process of completing the purchase processfor a business card design, the product vendor displays a link bearing alegend such as “See related products” or the like. If the customerselects this link, server will display related product page 300. As withthe post-sell page described above, to facilitate and streamline theordering process, related product page 300 presents link 304 allowingthe customer to add the related product to the customer's order, link306 allowing the customer to proceed with the original order withoutpurchasing the related product and link 308, allowing the customer toinitiate an edit session for the related product to select a differentcontent image 204 or perform other desired actions. Also similar to thepost-sell situation, if the customer is in the process of purchasing abusiness card, the image of the business card being purchased in used inrelated product image 200 as image 202. To facilitate and streamline theordering process, related products page 300 presents link 304 allowingthe customer to add the related product to the customer's order, ling306 allowing the customer to proceed with the original order withoutpurchasing the related product, and link 308, allowing the customer toinitiate an edit session for the related product to select a differentcontent image 204 or perform other desired actions. If the product beingcurrently being purchased is not a business card, but an earlier createdbusiness card design is associated with the customer in product designs132, the associated business card design is retrieved and used as image202. If the customer has more than one business card design in productdesigns 132, one design will be selected, typically the most recent, andpresented in image 200 with a link 304 presented to allow the customerto request to see additional related product images 200 for theadditional business card designs.

If for some reason no useable geographic or occupational information isavailable for a particular customer, a default backup image 204 is used.In the disclosed embodiment, the default image is a calendar, but othercontent could be used.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a representative embodiment of a method forcreating related product designs in accordance with the invention willbe discussed. At step 402, information about a first product designsuitable for incorporation into a second related product design isidentified and selected for incorporation into the related productdesign 200. Business card designs containing relevant contactinformation are a logical choice for use in creating related products,but it will be understood that the invention is not limited to use withjust product design images or information extracted from a productdesign. A logo, photograph, or other information or image provided by acustomer and available at server 130 could be employed.

Each customized product design retained in product designs 134 isassociated with a particular customer account. To create a user accountand order products from server 130, a customer must provide variouscontact information, such as a name, shipping address, telephone number,email address, and the like, which is retained in customer information132. Any product designs created by the customer are associated with auser account, allowing the custom designs in product designs 134 to beassociated with the customer's information in customer information 132.Information about the customer's design process when creating a customproduct, such whether the customer searched for products by specificindustry, may also be retained.

At step 404, available customer information is searched to locate acustomer postal code or other information in customer information 132that can be used to select a targeted content image from customerinformation 132 for incorporation as image 204 into related productdesign 200. At step 406, targeted content images matching the results ofthe search in step 404 are identified. As discussed above, the productvendor will typically take the current time of year into considerationin the search process to avoid presenting an undesirable option, such asa product incorporating a team schedule near the end of that team'sseason. At step 408, if more than one image meets the search criteria,the vendor will select among the available options in any mannerconsidered desirable by the vendor, such as by opting to use whicheverof the identified images has proven to be most popular with the vendor'scustomers. If no suitable targeted content image is identified, adefault content image, such as a calendar, is used.

At step 410, the related product image 200 is created containing theimage of, or information from, the first product design and the selectedcontent image. Additional content such as borders and background coloror images may also be included in the image 200 design. As discussedabove in connection with FIG. 3, the related product image can bepromoted to the customer in various ways, such as in response to thecustomer's request to see related products, as a post-sell promotionwhen the customer is in the process of ordering the first product, or,in a personalized email containing the image of the related product.

While an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been discussed, thedescribed embodiment is to be considered as illustrative rather thanrestrictive. The scope of the invention is as indicated in the followingclaims and all equivalent methods and systems.

1. A method implemented on a computer system comprising one or morecomputers for automatically creating a design for a second customizedproduct for a customer, the second customized product design beingrelated to an earlier-created design of a first customized productassociated with the customer, the method comprising: retaining the firstcustomized product design and a customer account containing customerinformation and product information associated with the first customizedproduct design in electronic form; retaining a plurality of contentimages in electronic form, one or more of which are associated with oneor more search criteria; retaining an uncustomized design for a secondproduct in electronic form, the uncustomized design having at least afirst content area for content retrieved from the first customizedproduct design and a second content area for an image retrieved from theplurality of content images retained in electronic form; automaticallyretrieving information from the first customized product design andinserting the retrieved information into the first content area;analyzing by the computer system the customer account informationassociated with the first customized product design to determine one ormore search criteria for selecting a content image from the plurality ofcontent images; and automatically selecting a content image from theplurality of content images based on the determined one or more searchcriteria and inserting the selected content image into the secondcontent area such that a second product design customized for thecustomer is automatically created without requiring the customer todesign the second product design.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein theretrieved information inserted into the first content area is an imageof the first customized product.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein theretrieved information inserted into the first content area isinformation taken from the design of the first customized product. 4.The method of claim 1 wherein the determined one or more search criteriais extracted from information contained in the customer accountinformation associated with the first customized product.
 5. The methodof claim 4 wherein the determined one or more search criteria isselected based on at least address information contained in the customeraccount.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the content image containsschedule information for activities in the geographical area of theaddress contained in the customer account.
 7. The method of claim 6wherein the content image is selected further based on at least the timeof year when the second customized product is being created such thatthe schedule information selected is timely.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein a default content image is selected for insertion into thesecond content area if the determined one or more search criteria is notassociated with any of the plurality of content images.
 9. The method ofclaim 1 wherein at least some content of the first customized productdesign is identified as being associated with particular subject matterand wherein the content image selected for insertion into the secondcontent area is selected based on that subject matter.
 10. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the second customized product design is created andpresented in response to a request from the customer for the automaticcreation of at least one additional product design.
 11. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the second customized product design is created andpresented without request by the customer.
 12. The method of claim 1further comprising sending an email to the customer containing an imageof the second customized product design.
 13. The method of claim 12wherein the email contains a link configured to allow the customerinitiate a process for purchasing products having the second customizedproduct design.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the email contains alink allowing the customer to initiate a process for editing the secondcustomized product design prior to initiating the purchasing process.15. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying an image of thesecond customized product design to the customer on a Web page.
 16. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the Web page displays a link allowing thecustomer to initiate a process for purchasing products having the secondcustomized product design.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the Webpage displays a link allowing the customer to initiate a process forediting the second customized product design.
 18. The method of claim 1wherein the determined one or more search criteria comprises acustomer's occupation.
 19. The method of claim 1 wherein the determinedone or more search criteria comprises a customer's geographicallocation.
 20. The method of claim 1 wherein the content image selectedfor insertion into the second content area is further selected based ona time of year.
 21. Computer readable storage media comprising one ormore computer readable storage mediums, the computer readable storagemedia tangibly embodying program instructions which, when executed by acomputer system comprising one or more computers, implement a method forautomatically creating a design for a second customized product for acustomer, the second customized product design being related to anearlier-created design of a first customized product associated with thecustomer, the method comprising: retaining the first customized productdesign and a customer account containing customer information andproduct information associated with the first customized product designin electronic form; retaining a plurality of content images inelectronic form, one or more of which are associated with one or moresearch criteria; retaining an uncustomized design for a second productin electronic form, the uncustomized design having at least a firstcontent area for content retrieved from the first customized productdesign and a second content area for an image retrieved from theplurality of content images retained in electronic form; automaticallyretrieving information from the first customized product design andinserting the retrieved information into the first content area;analyzing by the computer system the customer account informationassociated with the first customized product design to determine one ormore search criteria for selecting a content image from the plurality ofcontent images; and automatically selecting a content image from theplurality of content images based on the determined one or more searchcriteria and inserting the selected content image into the secondcontent area such that a second product design customized for thecustomer is automatically created without requiring the customer todesign the second product design.
 22. The computer readable storagemedia of claim 1 wherein the retrieved information inserted into thefirst content area is an image of the first customized product.
 23. Thecomputer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein the retrievedinformation inserted into the first content area is information takenfrom the design of the first customized product.
 24. The computerreadable storage media of claim 1 wherein the determined one or moresearch criteria is extracted from information contained in the customeraccount information associated with the first customized product. 25.The computer readable storage media of claim 4 wherein the determinedone or more search criteria is selected based on at least addressinformation contained in the customer account.
 26. The computer readablestorage media of claim 5 wherein the content image contains scheduleinformation for activities in the geographical area of the addresscontained in the customer account.
 27. The computer readable storagemedia of claim 6 wherein the content image is selected further based onat least the time of year when the second customized product is beingcreated such that the schedule information selected is timely.
 28. Thecomputer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein a default contentimage is selected for insertion into the second content area if thedetermined one or more search criteria is not associated with any of theplurality of content images.
 29. The computer readable storage media ofclaim 1 wherein at least some content of the first customized productdesign is identified as being associated with particular subject matterand wherein the content image selected for insertion into the secondcontent area is selected based on that subject matter.
 30. The computerreadable storage media of claim 1 wherein the second customized productdesign is created and presented in response to a request from thecustomer for the automatic creation of at least one additional productdesign.
 31. The computer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein thesecond customized product design is created and presented withoutrequest by the customer.
 32. The computer readable storage media ofclaim 1, the method further comprising sending an email to the customercontaining an image of the second customized product design.
 33. Thecomputer readable storage media of claim 12 wherein the email contains alink configured to allow the customer initiate a process for purchasingproducts having the second customized product design.
 34. The computerreadable storage media of claim 13 wherein the email contains a linkallowing the customer to initiate a process for editing the secondcustomized product design prior to initiating the purchasing process.35. The computer readable storage media of claim 1, the method furthercomprising displaying an image of the second customized product designto the customer on a Web page.
 36. The computer readable storage mediaof claim 15 wherein the Web page displays a link allowing the customerto initiate a process for purchasing products having the secondcustomized product design.
 37. The computer readable storage media ofclaim 16 wherein the Web page displays a link allowing the customer toinitiate a process for editing the second customized product design. 38.The computer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein the determinedone or more search criteria comprises a customer's occupation.
 39. Thecomputer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein the determined one ormore search criteria comprises a customer's geographical location. 40.The computer readable storage media of claim 1 wherein the content imageselected for insertion into the second content area is further selectedbased on a time of year.
 41. A system which automatically creates adesign for a second customized product for a customer, the secondcustomized product design being related to an earlier-created design ofa first customized product associated with the customer, the systemcomprising: one or more computer data storage systems configured toretain computer-readable data, including the first customized productdesign, a customer account associated with the customer and the firstcustomized product design and containing customer information, productinformation associated with the first customized product design, aplurality of content images one or more of which are associated with oneor more search criteria, and an uncustomized design for a second productthe uncustomized design having at least a first content area configuredto receive content retrieved from the first customized product designand a second content area configured to receive an image retrieved fromthe plurality of content images; and one or more computers configured toautomatically retrieve information from the first customized productdesign and insert the retrieved information into the first content area,analyze the customer account information associated with the firstcustomized product design to determine one or more search criteria forselecting a content image from the plurality of content images, andautomatically select a content image from the plurality of contentimages based on the determined one or more search criteria and insertthe selected content image into the second content area such that asecond product design customized for the customer is automaticallycreated without requiring the customer to design the second productdesign.
 42. The system of claim 41 wherein the retrieved informationinserted into the first content area is an image of the first customizedproduct.
 43. The system of claim 41 wherein the retrieved informationinserted into the first content area is information taken from thedesign of the first customized product.
 44. The system of claim 41wherein the determined one or more search criteria is extracted frominformation contained in the customer account information associatedwith the first customized product.
 45. The system of claim 44 whereinthe determined one or more search criteria is selected based on at leastaddress information contained in the customer account.
 46. The system ofclaim 45 wherein the content image contains schedule information foractivities in the geographical area of the address contained in thecustomer account.
 47. The system of claim 46 wherein the content imageis selected further based on at least the time of year when the secondcustomized product is being created such that the schedule informationselected is timely.
 48. The system of claim 41 wherein a default contentimage is selected for insertion into the second content area if thedetermined one or more search criteria is not associated with any of theplurality of content images.
 49. The system of claim 41 wherein at leastsome content of the first customized product design is identified asbeing associated with particular subject matter and wherein the contentimage selected for insertion into the second content area is selectedbased on that subject matter.
 50. The system of claim 41 wherein thesecond customized product design is created and presented in response toa request from the customer for the automatic creation of at least oneadditional product design.
 51. The system of claim 41 wherein the secondcustomized product design is created and presented without request bythe customer.
 52. The system of claim 41 further comprising sending anemail to the customer containing an image of the second customizedproduct design.
 53. The system of claim 52 wherein the email contains alink configured to allow the customer initiate a process for purchasingproducts having the second customized product design.
 54. The system ofclaim 53 wherein the email contains a link allowing the customer toinitiate a process for editing the second customized product designprior to initiating the purchasing process.
 55. The system of claim 41further comprising displaying an image of the second customized productdesign to the customer on a Web page.
 56. The system of claim 55 whereinthe Web page displays a link allowing the customer to initiate a processfor purchasing products having the second customized product design. 57.The system of claim 56 wherein the Web page displays a link allowing thecustomer to initiate a process for editing the second customized productdesign.
 58. The system of claim 41 wherein the determined one or moresearch criteria comprises a customer's occupation.
 59. The system ofclaim 41 wherein the determined one or more search criteria comprises acustomer's geographical location.